Sunday, December 28, 2014

I have been making steady progress on my quilt top! My poor kitties are feeling neglected!

I've been taking four blocks and sewing them together to make a 24 inch block. I want to keep the diamonds together in their color "scheme" (if you can call it that). Two edges have extra blocks that form half a diamond, so those have six blocks sewn together.

Muffin and Pippi made a mess of the blocks on the ottoman, I finally gave up and put them in a stack until I got to them. They are the very last corner and I just need to sew the outside edges to the diamond.

This was the last row to be sewn yesterday and is mostly sewn together now. Pippi is in her basket leaving my blocks alone in this picture.

I have been stacking each row as I finish the 24 inch blocks. I'll lay them all out again before sewing them together to make sure I don't want to move any of them.

My cats like to throw my blocks around.

And pull all of the pins out of the pin cushion. They are so mischievous.

This is where I have been working. I have the hand crank set up in the living room since my husband had the week off. Muffin will sleep behind me until I accidently sit on him. I'll move into my sewing room tomorrow since my husband will be going back to work and my blocks are bigger so I'll want to use my treadle now.

I have to go back to work on Friday and I am hoping to have my quilt finished, but I do need to do some laundry or we won't have anything to wear! LOL

Friday, December 26, 2014

I finished all of my blocks for my scrappy trip around the world quilt! I started this quilt two years ago in January! I made 81 blocks, nine across and nine down. It's so big that I was laying blocks on top of my husband, he was not very happy about that. LOL

The poor cats barely had any room, Pippi is asleep in the basket but she blends in with the brown pillow, Custard went to sleep on top of the other basket.

My entire floor is covered. I laid a blanket on top of them last night, but not all of the blocks are covered. I made squares of four blocks with matching blues to make patterns.

It's impossible to keep the cats off! I am sewing my "sets" together first to make sure I don't lose my patterns. Doesn't Oreo look good with all of those colors?

Muffin, asleep on the ottoman. These blocks were a mess this morning. I won't be able to finish it until we get back from the store, I hope they don't make too big of a mess!

I had to share some pictures of Muffin.

I bought a light up "snowball" from Walmart and the cats love chasing it!

Sunday, December 21, 2014

Jody Hedlund and Bethany publishers sent me her latest book to read and review. I absolutely love it! The setting is in a light house and remote fishing outpost in Michigan. I have loved everyone of her books that I have read and this one did not disappoint. It has intrigue, secrets, mystery, and of course romance! The underlying theme is God's forgiveness and being able to forgive yourself for past sins. I finished this book in one weekend, I could not put it down!

Wednesday, December 10, 2014

I bought some vintage ornaments Saturday. The long blue one, tiny red and green one, and the decorated one were all 25 cents! The red and blues with the gold trim were $1 each! I was so happy to find these ornaments!

I put them in a bowl with some green ornaments I had and set them on top of the almost finished table runner.

I decided to use two fabrics and make pinwheels. I los the "scenes" but like the way it turned out.

I've been filling in for sick teachers at school, so who knows when I will have time to baste and bind it! One more week before Christmas break!

Oreo wanted to help me. There was a loose piece of material and he decided to grab it and carry it around. He was having trouble walking with it between his legs, wish I could have gotten a back shot!

Of course his sister wanted to help!

Then he decided to try to eat it , so I took it away and cut that piece off!

Thursday, December 4, 2014

This is the cute fabric I bought for my apron, but changed my mind and now want to make it into a table runner.

There are just a few snags. To get the "scene", the block needs to be about 9 1/2 inches as you can see below.

Even the six inches (below) would be just a snowman. I also need something super quick because I do not have very much time to work on it.

I can do one of two things. Either just cut it long and put the gingerbread men (brown fabric) around it as a border, or I can make different colored sashing to go around the nine and a half inch blocks. What do you think?

I was also thinking I could make it reversible and have a winter themed table runner for January by making pinwheels with the blue fabric.

I have never made a table runner before. My table is six feet by three feet. Do I make it all in the center (about four feet) to fit plates all around it, or do I make it six feet long? I was thinking the center could be between 12-13 inches.

Any suggestions would be welcome, I would like them made by Sunday if I could! Yeah right!
This is my only goal for this month!

Tuesday, December 2, 2014

have you ever wanted to make something and just had problem after problem trying to get it made?
I bought some very cute vintage looking snowman fabric from Joann's on black Friday. I wanted to make an apron for Christmas. I took out my book A is for Apron and looked for an apron that I liked. I found a really cute vintage looking one, but could not figure out a way to print the pattern at 400% on my home printer. After messing with that for a while, I decided to see what Christmas fabric I had. I pulled the box down and found some material that already had the apron printed on it and decided to just make that.

Wow, I had not realized how big my bulky sweatshirt makes me look!

Of course I had help cutting out my material!

I think I am going to make a table runner with the material I bought for the apron!